Pearl's musings

The garden is exploding! July 26, 2010

Well, not literally, but it’s really producing! This week my new recipe used the lemon grass I planted a month or so ago…Vietnamese Lemongrass Chicken. Holy cow! Was it ever good! Even our 8-year-old enjoyed 3 servings of it! A couple of changes: I used a little less than called for curry (due to “precious Canadian taste buds”); swapped 3 chillies for a few light shakes of red pepper flakes (due to aforementioned taste buds); I tossed in a few sugar peas–shells and all–at the last-minute. They really worked with the whole dish. I served it over brown rice.

I also experimented with a couple of new jams–taking advantage of the abundance of my garden and my neighbor’s orchards. First, peach/passionfruit. Whoa! It rocks! Early in my blog I featured some photos of the passionfruit in blossom–quite unusual and beautiful flowers. Now they are ready to harvest. Sooooo good!

I made some peach/plum/kumquat jam last night, with kumquat courtesy of Lisa; peaches thanks to Rhonda; and plums were a gift from Heidi! I mashed up the kumquat since they can taste a little bitter. Mashed, however, they fill out the flavors of the peaches and plums without shocking chunks of bitterness. The color is also remarkable. I might be done with jam for now…unless I can hook up with some fig people!

Additionally, the ginger is taking off. I’m not sure if we can eat the roots or not–but the flowers are glorious! These orange ones are not as fragrant as the white ones are, but still, very showy. The mini dahlias are also blooming currently. So pretty!

One of our orchids is fairly bursting! Photos of blooms will follow, likely next week:

I spent a glorious morning mosaicing with Melissa. I was able to cover a 10″ terra-cotta pot…the glue is curing presently. I’ll grout and seal this week and share the results here. I went with a blue and white theme, utilizing broken plates from our kitchen over the past year. I scavenged the local thrift store for some red dishes…next project will definitely include red!

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Books I Have Read Since Spring 2010…

The Help; My Life In France; The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency; The Many Lives & Secret Sorrows of Josephine B.; The Murderous Urges of Ordinary Women; South of Broad; The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Away; Interpreter of Maladies; The Girl Who Played With Fire; An Echo in the Bones; Bel Canto; Cutting For Stone; Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe; Wicked; When Or Where; Year of Wonders; The Art Of Racing In The Rain; The Crimson Petal and The White; The Last Great Dance On Earth; Slammerkin; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; Mistress of the Sun; Mennonite In A Little Black Dress; The Forgotten Garden; Water For Elephants; Islands Apart; Agent Zig Zag; Unbroken; Displacement; The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest; The 19th Wife; Before Versailles; Cleopatra; The Land of Painted Caves, Elizabeth I; Secret Daughter, 1000 White Women; Lamb; Room; The Road; The Book of Negroes; Steve Jobs; Seabiscuit; The Hunger Games; Catching Fire; Mockingjay; Some Girls; Mary Sutter; Snow Flower and the Secret Fan; State of Wonder; Wild; Night Circus; The Kitchen House; The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry; The 50 Shades Trilogy; Gone Girl, Molokai; A Good American; Our Lady Of The Forest; Flight Behavior; Still Life; The Next Best Thing; Then Came You; The Buddha In The Attic; The Good House; Caucasia; The Pact; Destiny of the Republic; The Art of Hearing Heartbeats; Stolen Lives: 20 Years in a Desert Jail; Tender at the Bone; The Light Between The Oceans; Let's Pretend This Never Happened; The Good House; Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet; The People In The Trees; The Ocean At The End Of The Lane; Me Before You; Divergent; Insurgent; Allegiant; The Reason I Jump; The Magician's Assistant; The Diary of Don Juan; Game of Thrones; The Fault In Our Stars; Blind Doctor: The Jacob Bolotin Story; The Color of Water; The Lost Child of Philomena Lee; The Boys in the Boat; These Is My Words; The Endless Forest; The Interestings